A touching memoir from Zweig, but his statement that "no government wanted it" was not true. The leadership of Austria was absolutely set on a war on Serbia and were never "bluffing". It's true that neither they nor Germany "wanted" a general European war, except for a few German generals, but the leadership of both nations had consciously accepted the risk of triggering a general war and went ahead with their plans to crush Serbia anyway. The war came as such a shock because Austria and Germany conducted all their actvities leading up to the war in secret.
Satan himself could not invent a better way to destroy European Unity than the European Union. The Maastricht decision to change the EC into the EU was catastrophic, and many said that at the time, most notably Mrs Thatcher.
The key irritant is the Euro and the attempt to force a common macroeconomic policy on desperate economies. It the EU had simply concentrated on becoming a more perfect free trade area ....
Yes: a monetary union without a fiscal union and a banking-regulatory union makes no sense. And having all three—macroeconomic integration—may make no sense. Canada would be better off if Alberta had a separate currency.
The EU was a political creation designed by political leaders and its major decisions (e.g., EMU) were political. Couple this with the fact that there are no competent economists in Europe (the Continent). The EU is like an airplane designed by heart surgeons.
Well, it probably WAS British imperialism persisting long past is sell-by date that led Germany also to mistakenly seek empire and confrontation with Britian and France. Probably not what Lessaur had in mind. :)
A touching memoir from Zweig, but his statement that "no government wanted it" was not true. The leadership of Austria was absolutely set on a war on Serbia and were never "bluffing". It's true that neither they nor Germany "wanted" a general European war, except for a few German generals, but the leadership of both nations had consciously accepted the risk of triggering a general war and went ahead with their plans to crush Serbia anyway. The war came as such a shock because Austria and Germany conducted all their actvities leading up to the war in secret.
Satan himself could not invent a better way to destroy European Unity than the European Union. The Maastricht decision to change the EC into the EU was catastrophic, and many said that at the time, most notably Mrs Thatcher.
The key irritant is the Euro and the attempt to force a common macroeconomic policy on desperate economies. It the EU had simply concentrated on becoming a more perfect free trade area ....
Yes: a monetary union without a fiscal union and a banking-regulatory union makes no sense. And having all three—macroeconomic integration—may make no sense. Canada would be better off if Alberta had a separate currency.
The EU was a political creation designed by political leaders and its major decisions (e.g., EMU) were political. Couple this with the fact that there are no competent economists in Europe (the Continent). The EU is like an airplane designed by heart surgeons.
Well, it probably WAS British imperialism persisting long past is sell-by date that led Germany also to mistakenly seek empire and confrontation with Britian and France. Probably not what Lessaur had in mind. :)
Reminds me of 1984's "Two Minutes Hate."